Salt + Light Media Menu
Salt + Light Media Home
Magnifying Glass
coverPhoto
Premium content

Asset title

Asset description

#TFImoments: The legacy of Pope Francis began to unfold on March 13, 2013

Sebastian Gomes

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Pope Francis’ words and actions have had a profound impact on countless people of various backgrounds, interests, and beliefs. In the interviews for my upcoming documentary, The Francis Impact, I’ve heard some beautiful and concrete testimonies of this. So I created #TFIMOMENTS, a web series to share some of these profound and personal moments of connection with the pope.
Ask someone about their most memorable image of Pope Francis and you’ll likely hear this: “When he walked out onto the balcony dressed in a simple white cassock, bowed his head, and asked the people to pray over him!”
Time and time again people make reference to that historic moment on the evening of March 13, 2013. Watching it in real time, none of us could have predicted the direction Francis’ papacy would take. But looking back now after more than five years, the events of that evening clearly set a tone for what was to come.
For Franciscans like Fr. Dan Horan, the moment was extra special: the first time in history the Successor of Peter chose his name after the founder of their religious community, Francis of Assisi.
What strikes Fr. Dan and so many others about the pope is what strikes so many about the life of St. Francis: his simplicity. “What we see with Pope Francis is a ‘throwing away’ of all the ‘extra’; all of those things that people seem to view as important according to the logic of the world,” says Fr. Dan in this #TFImoment.
That same quality is what St. Francis of Assisi is so well known for: a seemingly reckless abandonment of material wealth and fine clothes to live an ascetic life in communion with God and creation. (Pope Francis doesn’t wear rags per se, but he’s been spotted with frayed sleeves).
Some commentators read into the pope’s simplicity a revolt against Church traditions or at least a snubbing of those Catholics who enjoy the “finer things” of the faith. But if Pope Francis is true to his namesake, his adopted simplicity has deeper roots: to free himself from worldly things to try to be closer to God.
People may look at the pope’s detachment and think he’s a bit crazy, as some people think St. Francis was crazy. But the real choice in both cases is not made out of a philosophical proposition or ideological impulse. As G.K. Chesterton wrote in his little book on St. Francis of Assisi:
“A man will not roll in the snow for a stream of tendency by which all things fulfil the law of their being. He will not go without food in the name of something, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness. He will do things like this, or pretty like this, under quite a different impulse. He will do these things when he is in love.”
For more information about The Francis Impact visit the official webpage.
Next #TFImoment: Kate Hennessy, granddaughter of Dorothy Day and author of Dorothy Day: The World Will be Saved by Beauty
The Francis Impact poster


Related Articles:

Category: Africa, Congo and South Sudan, Highlight, Papal Visit, Pope Francis, 教宗方濟各

Tag: Congo, 金沙薩, 講道, homily, Mass, Pope Francis, 剛果, 彌撒, 教宗方濟各

教宗良十四世在岡道爾夫堡的意大利憲兵總部主持彌撒

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

鹽與光

【鹽與光傳媒資訊】2025年7月15日,教宗良十四世在岡道爾夫堡的意大利國家憲兵——卡賓槍騎兵(Carabinieri))總部主持彌撒,並對意大利憲兵在禧年期間保護前往羅馬朝聖者的辛勤努力表達感謝。

教宗良十四世在岡道爾夫堡夏宮門前帶領信眾誦念《三鐘經》

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

鹽與光

【鹽與光傳媒資訊】2025年7月13日,教宗良十四世與信友們在岡道爾夫堡夏宮門前一同誦念三鐘經,並提醒基督徒:我們獲得永生,並非靠逃避死亡,而是靠以服務與愛心關懷他人。

聖文德

Monday, July 14, 2025

鹽與光

全能的天主,我們今天慶祝聖文德的誕辰,求你使我們能從他傑出的訓誨中,獲得神益,並在日常生活中,不斷效法他熱誠的愛德。因你的聖子、我們的主耶穌基督,他和你及聖神,是唯一天主,永生永王。亞孟。

教宗良十四世2025年世界司鐸聖化祈禱日致司鐸文告

Monday, July 14, 2025

鹽與光

教宗良十四世:「在這聖年中,我們蒙召成為懷著希望的朝聖者,我們的牧靈職務越扎根在祈禱與寬恕的根基上;越貼近窮人、家庭和尋求真理的年輕人,就越能結出豐碩的果實。各位不要忘記:聖潔的司鐸使聖德在自己的周遭發揚光大。我將你們眾人託付給聖母瑪利亞——宗徒之后和眾司鐸之母,並誠摯降福你們所有人。」

教宗良十四世在岡道爾夫堡的宗座堂區主持彌撒

Monday, July 14, 2025

鹽與光

【鹽與光傳媒資訊】2025年7月13日,教宗良十四世(Pope Leo XIV)於主日,在岡道爾夫堡(Castel Gandolfo)的宗座堂區維拉諾瓦的聖多默堂主持彌撒,並提醒信友,我們應仰望主,那良善的撒瑪黎雅人(Good Samaritan)。教宗強調:當我們親身經驗到天主的愛與治癒,我們也就能將同樣的安慰帶給在生命中遇到的人。

SUPPORT LABEL

Receive our newsletters
Stay Connected
Receive our newsletters
Stay Connected
Copyright © 2025 Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation
Registered Charity # 88523 6000 RR0001
FR | CH